Edinburgh Fringe festival organisers admitted yesterday that their box office system is still out of action more than 48 hours after tickets went on sale.

In the meantime the company has been telling customers: “All website, telephone and counter sales will remain suspended until we reopen the box office tomorrow [12 June].”

However, a spokeswoman at the organisation told El Reg on Tuesday that the box office system, which went titsup in the final stages of implementation, would be up and running by 10am Wednesday.

In fact, she said the Fringe was “99 per cent confident” that the problem would be fixed.

Sadly, it seems the joke’s on Glasgow-based Pivotal Integration Limited, which supplies box office software to the company and is still working on resolving the cock-up.

Microsoft is listed as a major sponsor of this year's Edinburgh Fringe festival, which is perhaps best known for its irreverent comedy shows, but also puts on hundreds of plays and musical events as well. And the occasional farce. ®